The National Reference Test (NRT) is uniquely placed, as a Key Stage 4 assessment which directly measures performance over time, to contribute to the evidence on the impact disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study in the main report provides additional analysis of the NRT 2020 and 2021 data to explore whether different areas of the…

Internationally, assessment and the use of diagnostic data are recognized as critical capabilities for teachers. This is not a recent development, with assessment recognized for some decades as playing a significant role in informing learning and learners.This paper will examine whether teachers and members of the school leadership team utilize…

Process Analysis is an emerging approach to discover meaningful knowledge from temporal educational data. The study presented in this paper shows how we used Process Analysis methods on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test data for modeling and predicting student test-taking behavior. Our process-oriented data exploration…

COVID-19 gave the country a crash course in public health data. It underscored the value of data that can support well-informed, timely action in a crisis. Good data are just as important for education systems in crisis. Schools and districts have been struggling to reach and educate students safely. Students who were disproportionately…

Charter schools are publicly funded schools freed from some of the regulations placed on traditional public schools (TPS). In exchange for that greater level of autonomy, public charter schools are required to meet performance goals contained in their authorizing charter or face the prospect of closure. Most public charter schools may enroll…

Education is often depicted as one of the best ways out of poverty. At the same time, research over many decades finds that most educational outcomes are strongly correlated to poverty. It is not likely that these two themes are true at the same time. Either schools are windows of opportunity and help overcome or mitigate poverty and other…

During the Great Recession, national public school per-pupil spend-ing fell by roughly 7 percent and persisted beyond the recovery. The impact of such large and sustained education funding cuts is not well understood. To examine this, first, we document that the recessionary drop in spending coincided with the end of decades-long national growth…

In this study, the equated score results of the kernel equating (KE) method compared with the results of traditional equating methods--equipercentile and linear equating and 9th grade 2009 ÖBBS Form B of Social Sciences and 2009 ÖBBS Form D of Social Sciences was used under an equivalent groups (EG) design. Study sample consists of 16.249 students…

According to international studies of achievement in mathematics amongst Australian secondary school students, results have declined over time when compared with other countries. The National Assessment Program -- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an Australian government initiative to measure whether students have the knowledge, understanding,…

Although the number of countries conducting large-scale assessments has significantly increased over the past two decades, this has not necessarily led to the effective use of learning assessment data in policymaking and planning. To better understand the reasons for this, the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP)…

Money matters in education, especially for students from families that are struggling financially. Increasing school funding not only leads to improved school completion rates and higher achievement in low-income school districts, but over the long-term it can increase educational attainment, wages, and family incomes for children from low-income…

The efficiency-equity trade-offs in public service delivery may be influenced by the dependency of local governments on their own resources rather than inter-governmental grants. School districts in the United States are expected both to produce human capital efficiently and to provide educational opportunity equally. To ascertain school district…

Parental use of private literacy tutoring has been one of the most controversial of the 'unintended outcomes' of the introduction of the National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), Australia's national regimen of literacy testing. Other uses of tutoring--whether NAPLAN-related or not--have attracted less public and research…

Life's paradoxes present across the varied landscapes we traverse in education and serve as formidable barriers in attempts to secure ethical consistency in practice. The presence of paradox invites educational researchers and practitioners to diligently examine our available choices, particularly when fixed by dominant ways of knowing/being. This…

Critical thinking is brought to the fore as a central competence in today's society and in school curricula, but what may be emphasised as a general skill may also differ across school subjects. Using a mixed methods approach we identify general formulations regarding critical thinking in the Swedish curriculum of school year nine and seven more…